Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Hey, the gang’s all here.
A parade of Genovese wiseguys and associates — including an elderly
captain and a burly union leader — pleaded guilty to a range of classic
mob crimes Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court.
Genovese captain Conrad Ianniello, soldiers Salvester Zarzana and
James Bernardone and two others copped to a slew of mafia misdeeds in
front of Judge Nicholas Garaufis.
The crime quintet was among 11 Genovese hoods who were swept up in an
April 2012 bust and charged with everything from shaking down vendors
at the annual San Gennaro festival in Little Italy to extorting
contractors on major construction projects to union wrangling.
In addition to his San Gennaro activities, the elderly Ianniello was
also charged with running illegal gambling enterprises and union fixing.
He copped to gambling and extortion raps.
Bernardone serves as the Secretary Treasurer of Local 124 of the
International Union of Journeymen and Allied Trades and Zarzana formerly
headed the Local 926 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners.
“I along with others, conspired to steal property through the threat
of economic harm,” Bernardone said meekly in a scripted statement to the
court.
Bernardone was smacked with racketeering raps related to
his shakedowns of contractors performing work throughout Manhattan,
Brooklyn and Queens from 2006 to 2009 including the construction of a
Hampton Inn on Ditmars Boulevard.
The Bronx resident is out on $750,000 bond but nearly had it revoked
in June after he attended a mobster-laden wake that was attended by more
than two-dozen known hoods who were paying respects to a
neighborhood fixture in March.
A pair of other Genovese associates, Paul Gasparrini and Ryan Ellis, also copped pleas Wednesday.
The gangsters will all remain out on bail until their March 14 sentencing.